Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Thespiana 2016


Our second foray into the world of theatre has come to a successful end. We were behind the scenes again this time, last time as assistant director for The Last Radio Show. This time we were honored to have a short play we had written chosen for production as part of Thespiana 2016.

Thespiana 2016 featured five plays by local playwrights, including Chuck Cabell, Warren Epstein, and Lauren and Mark Arnest. Warren Epstein and the fabulous Eve Tilley split the directing tasks. Opening night, Saturday, was sold out, with the Sunday matinee getting close to a full house. The audience seemed pleased with the plays, laughing and applauding more than politely. All in all, an outstanding weekend.

The theme of Thespiana 2016 was "gray comedies." The first half of the festival was consumed by Chuck Cabell's Diabolus ex Machina. After intermission, A Priest, a Rabbi, and a Horse..., also by Chuck Cabell, The Secret Origin of Race, by Warren Epstein, Back from the Dead (our work), and Good Ommin', by Mark and Lauren Arnest, were presented.

Each play was performed as a staged-reading; that is they were rehearsed in advance, and enacted from chairs whilst the actors read from scripts. This leads to a shorter production time, with the story being acted out primarily in the audience member's head. The plays chosen worked very well for this kind of presentation as not a lot of action or props were called for.

Outstanding local actors, Sue Bachman, Elizabeth Kahn, Roy Kieffer, Greg Lanning, Mike Miller, Desiree Myers, Robert Tiffany, and Sallie Walker, were chosen by the directors to perform the five works. George Preston and Todd Wallinger were tapped to perform as MCs/narrators.

We want to thank our director, Eve Tilley, and Sallie Walker and Mike Miller for their epic performances of our play.